MAYOR of Liverpool Joe Anderson has rejected a recommendation to take an £80,000 salary for his new role.

The former council leader said he would instead take around £66,000 – equivalent to what he had earned as opposition leader while also working professionally at a Sefton school.

As council oposition leader he earned around £21,000, and around £45,000 as a social inclusion manager at Chesterfield High School.

The salary he has chosen to accept is equivalent to that of a Member of Parliament. The recommendation, made by an independent panel of experts, was meant to reflect “the role being carried out by the mayor both in terms of the executive functions ... and proposing and implementing key strategic plans”.

The recommendation prompted the Liberal group to raise their concern was about whether the chief executive would still be receiving his salary of up to £200,000, given the increased executive powers the mayor would have and the risk of duplication of roles.

There are currently up to 20 council officers – some in junior roles – who earn more £100,000 or more a year.

The recommended salary for the mayoral role was arrived at by taking into account “the profile and ambassadorial role” of the post and also the “size and population of the city”.

Leicester, the next largest authority with an elected mayor, has a population of 304,000 compared to Liverpool’s 440,000, but pays its mayor £65,000 – roughly equivalent to the sum Mayor Anderson has decided to accept.

But London mayor Boris Johnson, who is accountable to a population 17 times bigger than Liverpool’s, only receives £143,000

Mayor Anderson said: “I’m not going to be receiving any more money than I earned when I was leader of the opposition and working in Sefton.”

Council chief executive Ged Fitzgerald said Cllr Anderson had not played any part in arriving at the recommended salary of £79,500.

He added: “It has been devised by an independent group of people who have taken an impartial and dispassionate look at the role and its responsibilities before reaching a judgement.”

Liberal group leader Cllr Steve Radford said he had anticipated the recommendation would be higher. He added: “The key question is, if Mayor Anderson is going to be taking key decisions on a day to day basis, should the chief executive’s pay be reduced and his postion scaled down?

“We should not be in a situation where we are paying twice for some of the same work to be done twice.”

Mayor Anderson’s pay award will be formally decided at the meeting of the full council on May 23.